Ulster English

Approximate boundaries of the current and historical English/Scots dialects in Ulster. Mid-Ulster English is in light blue. Ulster Scots (green) is no longer spoken in that entire area. The Irish-speaking Gaeltacht is not shown.

Vowels have phonemic vowel length, with one set of lexically long and one of lexically short phonemes. This may be variously influenced by the Scots system. It is considerably less phonemic than Received Pronunciation, and in vernacular Belfast speech vowel length may vary depending on stress.

/a/ in after /w/, e.g. want, what, quality.

/ɑ/ and /ɔː/ distinction in cot, body and caught, bawdy. Some varieties neutralise the distinction in long environments, e.g. don = dawn and pod = pawed.

/e/ may occur in such words as beat, decent, leave, Jesus, etc. This feature is recessive.

Lagan Valley /ɛ/ before /k/ in take and make, etc.

/ɛ/ before velars in sack, bag, and bang, etc.

Merger of /a/–/aː/ in all monosyllables, e.g. Sam and psalm[saːm ~ sɑːm] (the phonetic quality varies).

Dental /t̪/ and /d̪/ for /t/ and /d/ before /r/ in words such as butter or dry. Dental realisations of /n, l/ may occur as well, e.g. dinner, pillar. This feature, of Gaelic origin, is shared with Southern Hiberno-English.

/ʍ/–/w/ contrast in which–witch. This feature is recessive, particularly in vernacular Belfast speech.

Elision of /d/ in hand[hɑːn], candle/ˈkanl/ and old[əʉl], etc.

Elision of /b, ɡ/ in sing[sɪŋ], thimble, finger etc.

/θ/ and /ð/ for th.

/x/ for gh is retained in proper names and a few dialect words or pronunciations, e.g. lough, trough and sheugh.

The morphology and syntax of Irish is quite different from that of English, and it has influenced both Northern and Southern Hiberno-English to some degree.

Irish has separate forms for the second person singular (tú) and the second person plural (sibh), ("thou" and "ye" respectively in archaic and some intimate, informal English). Ulster English mirrors Irish in that the singular "you" is distinguished from the plural "you". This is normally done by using the words yous, yousuns or yis.[3] For example:

"Are yous not finished yet?"

"Did yousuns all go to see it?"

"What are yis up to?"

Irish lacks words that directly translate as "yes" or "no", and instead repeats the verb in a question (positively or negatively) to answer. As such, Northern and Southern Hiberno-English use "yes" and "no" less frequently than other English dialects.[4][5] For example:

"Are you coming home soon?" "I am"

"Is your computer working?" "It's not"

The absence of the verb "have" in Irish has influenced some grammar. The concept of "have" is expressed in Irish by the construction ag ("at") mé ("me") to create agam ("at me"). Hence, Ulster English speakers sometimes use the verb "have" followed by "with me/on me".[6] For example:

The broad, working-class Belfast dialect is not limited to the city itself but also takes in neighbouring urban areas in the local vicinity (such as Lisburn, Carrickfergus and Newtownards), as well as towns whose inhabitants originally came from Belfast (such as Craigavon). It is generally perceived as being associated with economically disadvantaged areas, and with youth culture. This however is not the dialect used in the media (even those outlets which are based in Belfast). Features of the accent include several vowel shifts, including one from /æ/ to /ɛ/ before or after velars (/bɛɡ/ for bag). Nowadays, this shift largely only happens before /k/, so pack and peck are homophones as /pɛk/.

The Belfast dialect is now becoming more frequently heard in towns and villages whose inhabitants would have traditionally spoken with a distinctively rural accent. Examples of such areas are Moira, Ballyclare, Dromore and Ballynahinch. It could be said that many young people in these areas prefer to use the more cosmopolitan city accent, as opposed to the local variant that their parents or people in other areas would use.

Other phonological features include the following:

Two major realisations of /e/ are to be encountered: in open syllables a long monophthong near [ɛː], but in closed syllables an ingliding diphthong, perhaps most typically [eə], but ranging from [ɛə] to [iə]. Thus days[dɛːz] and daze[deəz] are not homophonous.

In Belfast, and in mid and south Ulster, the opposition between /ɔ/ and /ɒ/ is better maintained than in other parts of Ulster, though it is restricted to only a few environments, e.g., that of a following voiceless plosive. Thus stock[stɒk ~ stɑk ~ sta̠k] is distinct from stalk[stɔ(ː)k]. However, this is complicated by the fact that certain words belonging to the Standard Lexical Set THOUGHT have /ɒ/ rather than the expected /ɔ/. These typically include draw, fall, walk, and caught. Water often has /a/ (the TRAP vowel).

The /aʊ/ phoneme is pronounced [əʉ] in most of Ulster, but in Belfast it is extremely variable and is a sensitive social marker. Pronunciations with a relatively front first element, [ɛ̈] or fronter, are working class. Middle class speakers prefer back [ɑ] or even [ɔ]. The second element is [ʉ ~ y ~ ɨ], often with little or no rounding. How and now may receive special treatment in working-class Belfast speech, with an open first element [a ~ ɑ] and a second element ranging over [i ~ ʉ], a retroflex approximant [ɻ], and zero, i.e., there may be no second element.[7]

Some of the vocabulary used among young people in Ulster, such as the word "spide", is of Belfast origin.

This region is heavily influenced by the historic presence of Ulster Scots and covers areas such as northern and eastern County Antrim, the Ards Peninsula in County Down, The Laggan district in County Donegal and northeastern County Londonderry. These districts are strongly Ulster Scots-influenced, and Scots pronunciation of words is often heard. People from here are often mistaken by outsiders as Scottish. This area includes the Glens of Antrim, where the last native Irish speakers of a dialect native to what is now Northern Ireland were to be found. It has been stated that, whilst in the written form, Gaelic of this area continued to use standardised Irish forms, the spoken dialect continued to the Scottish variant, and was in effect no different from the Gaelic of Argyll, or Galloway (both in Scotland).

In the 1830s, Ordnance Survey memoirs came to the following conclusion about the dialect of the inhabitants of Carnmoney, east Antrim:

Their accent is peculiarly, and among old people disagreeably, strong and broad.

The results of a BBC sociolinguistic survey can be found here.[8] East Donegal also has a strong Ulster Scots dialect (see below).

The accent of Derry City is actually that of western County Londonderry (including Dungiven and Limavady), northeastern County Donegal (including Inishowen), and northern and western County Tyrone (including Strabane). There is a higher incidence of palatalisation after /k/ and its voiced equivalent /ɡ/[9](e.g. /kʲɑɹ/ "kyar" for "car"), perhaps through influence from Southern Hiberno-English. However, the most noticeable difference is perhaps the intonation, which is unique to the Derry, Letterkenny and Strabane area. The accent of the Finn Valley and especially The Laggan district (centred on the town of Raphoe), both in East Donegal, together with the accent of neighbouring West Tyrone and the accent of the westernmost parts of County Londonderry (not including Derry City), are also quite Scottish sounding. A variety of Ulster Scots is spoken in these areas. This West Ulster variety of Ulster Scots is considered to be quite similar to the Scots spoken in Ayrshire in south-west Scotland.

Much non-standard vocabulary found in Ulster English and many meanings of Standard English words peculiar to the dialect come from Scots and Irish. Some examples are shown in the table below. Many of these are also used in Southern Hiberno-English, especially in the northern half of the island.

Pronounced akh or okh. Usually used to replace "ah!" and "oh!". Ach is Irish for "but", and can be used in the same context. Och is Irish and Scottish Gaelic for "alas", and again can be used in the same context.[13] Cf. German, Dutch, Frisian ach and English agh, German and Dutch have both ach and och.

Mainly used in Tyrone with different meanings depending on usage, but always refers to a female. "Look at thon blade" – "Look at that girl"; "Our blade" – "My sister/cousin" (Can also be used as a term of endearment in this form)

Origin uncertain—either from Irish coillte meaning "woods";[26] from Irish cúl a' tí meaning "back of the house" (for it was common practise for country people to go in the back door of the house they were visiting);[27] or from the -culture in "agriculture".

The Irish huist,[58] meaning "be quiet", is an unlikely source since the word is known throughout England and Scotland where it derives from early Middle English whist[59] (cf. Middle English hust[60] and Scots wheesht[61]).

wojus

awful/expression of surprise

adjective

Probably a variation of odious. Can also be used as an expression of surprise, usually to something negative. In this case it is most likely a shortened form of "Oh Jesus!"
Used throughout Ireland.

Furthermore, speakers of the dialect conjugate many verbs according to how they are formed in the most vernacular forms of Ulster Scots, e.g. driv instead of drove and driven as the past tense of drive, etc. (literary Scots drave, driven). Verbal syncretism is extremely widespread, as is the Northern subject rule.